For a review of our methodology, please see the References and Resources section below.

Here’s the key to the figures we’re examining:

WSP = Win Shares Produced: the total of major league Win Shares produced that season by all players credited to the organization Lg. WSP = League Win Shares Produced: the percentage of the league total of WSP credited to the organizationMLB WSP = Major League Baseball Win Shares Produced: the percentage of the MLB-wide total of WSP credited to the organizationW = Wins: the actual win total of the team that seasonLg. W = League Wins: the percentage of the league win total won by the teamW% – WSP% = League Wins minus League Win Shares Produced: a measure of how much better or worse a team actually performed than the league-wide value produced by its organization

And this time we’ve added a couple of new ones, to help assess comparative production in the post-1976 environment of unequally sized divisions and leagues:

Avg WSP = Average Win Shares Produced: the average WSP of the teams in a given division or league%MLB Avg = Percentage of the Major League Baseball Average: how the Average WSP for a given division or league compares with the overall major league average

Kansas City lost an excruciatingly close ALCS to the Yankees, who captured their first pennant after an 11-year drought. These Bronx Bombers didn’t enjoy anything close to the farm production the franchise had featured in its 1950s and ‘60s dynasty; MVP catcher Thurman Munson and left fielder Roy White were their only key home-grown elements.

When free agency arrived with the 1977 season, no team felt its impact more than the Athletics. Already they’d lost Catfish Hunter in 1975 to a contract snafu, and when the rest of their familiar stars got the choice of working for someone other than Charlie Finley, they jumped at it. The only one remaining was Vida Blue; alongside him a suddenly makeshift roster finished last, despite the A’s leading the league in value production.

National League organizations continued to produce more talent than their American League counterparts, for the 27th consecutive season. Since divisional play began in 1969, the NL West had been the most productive of all. But in 1977, the NL East vaulted ahead.

The biggest story of 1978 was the scintillating AL East race between the Yankees and Red Sox, culminating in the single-elimination playoff to be known forever in Red Sox Nation as the “Bucky F’ing Dent Game.” Both clubs were excellent, and remarkably evenly matched: The Yanks’ team OPS+ was 104, their team ERA+ 114; the Bosox’s team OPS+ was 104, and the team ERA+ 116.

But considering mode of construction, the clubs hardly could have presented a more stark contrast: The Yankees, primarily trade-built, had used the dawning free agent era to add two pearls in Reggie Jackson and Goose Gossage. One key addition from their quite weak farm system was Cy Young-winning ace Ron Guidry.

Of the four 1969-vintage expansion clubs, the Royals had been by far the quickest to achieve success. But by 1979, the Brewers and the Expos had stepped forward as strong contenders, and each had developed a more productive farm system than Kansas City’s.

A very different story was coming from San Francisco. This venerable franchise led the NL West in WSP in 1979 for the ninth time in the 11 seasons of divisional play, and had led the NL for five straight seasons before that. Through all that time, the Giants’ only championship was a lone division flag, and in ’79 they managed just a 71-91 record.

Another franchise that hadn’t yielded proportional benefit from a consistently strong farm system was the Cardinals. Throughout the 1970s, they’d been among the better producers of talent, but generally put a mediocre team on the field. In 1980, it was more of the same: second in the league in WSP, but a 74-88 record.

In his 20th and final season of A’s ownership, Finley produced another winning team. His franchise not only led the AL West in WSP for the 12th consecutive season, but also, for the first time, led all of MLB.

That year marked the 30th in a row that the National League had produced more talent than the American. The average NL franchise had 258 WSP, or 109.8% of the major league average, compared with a 215 average in the AL. Large though this gap was, it was at its narrowest since 1971, so perhaps the two leagues were finally moving toward parity in value production. Significantly, the difference in producing players of color had decreased, to 32.5% NL to 28.8% AL, as compared to 38.6%/27.0% in 1975. Next time we’ll see what the early 1980s would reveal.

Methodology

First, we identify every player in the major leagues each season with at least five career Win Shares. Then we identify which major league organization was responsible for originally signing and developing that player (or perhaps not originally signing him, but clearly being the organization most responsible for developing him). Finally, we credit every season’s production of major league Win Shares by that player to that organization, regardless of whether he actually played that season for that organization.

Sometimes it’s impossible to assign a player to one organization. Lots of players were signed by one team, but then acquired by another organization while still young minor leaguers. For such players, we assign half-credit to each of the two organizations (and in a few cases, we assign one-third-credit to each of three organizations).

In the late 1970s, a handful of players weren’t the products of any major league team’s farm system, having been purchased from independent teams in the Mexican League. The Win Shares of such players aren’t counted in this analysis.

Steve Treder has been a co-author of every Hardball Times Annual publication since its inception in 2004. His work has also been featured in Nine, The National Pastime, and other publications. He has frequently been a presenter at baseball forums such as the SABR National Convention, the Nine Spring Training Conference, and the Cooperstown Symposium. When Steve grows up, he hopes to play center field for the San Francisco Giants.